Camping it Up
by Major Clanger
Summary: **Slash** (see the rating) Jack and Daniel go camping


**Title: ****_Camping it Up_**

**Author: Major Clanger  
****Email: majclanger@aol.com  
****Rating: G**

**Pairing: J/D**

**Category: romance/some humour/first time**

**Date:** 6th July 2002

**Series:** no – independent story

**Website:** http://www.geocities.com/Clanger_Major/index.html

**Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and it's characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions and Gekko Productions. These stories are for entertainment purposes only, and no money exchanged hands. Really. Honestly. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations and stories are the property of the author. That is me, and I write under the name of "Major Clanger" for reasons that are unclear, even to me. These stories may not be posted elsewhere without my consent, although if you really want to, you could send me an e-mail and ask. After you get the smelling salts under my nose, I'll probably say "yes".**

**Author's notes: I was writing something else, and I got hopelessly tangled and stuck and sick and tired and fed up of it. So I decided to do this for Delaese and the ducks. For fun. So blame her. This one popped almost fully formed into my head, and forced it's merry way through my keyboard via my hard drive and out into the internet at large. Thanks to TinyCoward for the beta.**

**Summary: Jack and Daniel have a day out.**

**Spoilers: S3 Shades of Grey, S4 The Other Side, Scorched Earth  
****Season: Any time after the S4 ep _Scorched Earth_**

**Warning: none**

**Status: Complete  
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"Carefully Daniel!"

"Sorry Jack, my hands are sweaty, I can't get a good grip."

"Slow down a bit, we have all day you know."

"Yes, but we don't always have all day. We might get caught unawares sometime. If I can get it done fast when I need to that's got to be good. Right?" Daniel grunted with his exertions.

"Daniel! Don't try to just jam it in. Sheesh!" Jack gave what he hoped was an encouraging smile. "Sometimes a bit of extra lubrication can help."

"Lubrication? I think it's empty." Daniel looked at Jack helplessly. He tipped the container and squinted at  it. "Nope. It's all gone. We haven't got anything."

"Then you'll have to improvise," Jack looked at Daniel's pack. "What have you got in there?"

"Um... sunscreen... insect repellent... a sandwich. That's it."

"Sunscreen? That might be okay."

"Ah... actually no. It's not okay. I only have a little left. And it's still before noon. I'll need to put some more on soon."

"I'll help you with that." Jack gave his friend his best attempt at a lewd look. "So. What's on the sandwich?"

"You're thinking of food? Now?"

"I'll give you a revolutionary idea, Daniel. When we're talking about scratches in bits of rock, or languages that only dead people speak, we'll do it _your way. When it comes to matters of lubricating weapon parts when we're in a tight spot, we'll do it my way? How about that?"_

"Okay," Daniel grinned and batted his eyelashes. "Can I get that in writing?"

"And are you planning on answering my question any time soon?"

"What question?"

"Daniel," Jack's voice was a low growl.

"Oh, it's salad."

"Salad? What sort of salad?"

"You know, salad salad. Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, cheese, mayo, peanut butter, salt and lemon pepper. A salad sandwich. On rye."

"Mayo is ... Yeuch! You put peanut butter on a salad sandwich?" Jack made an action involving his index finger and open mouth.

"So speaks a man who eats omlette sandwiches. _Pea omlette sandwiches no less." Danie mirrored the gagging action._

"Yeah, wanna make something of it?"

"Who eats pea omlettes in the first place? And making it into a sandwich is just plain criminal."

"Look, when the sandwich was invented, it was just a convenient way of eating a proper meal on the run. Right?"

"Yes. The 4th Earl of Sandwich was addicted to gambling. Acutally you know, it was his butler who invented the sandwich when the Earl wouldn't leave the card table to eat a meal. He just slapped some meat between two pieces of bread so his boss could eat it with his fingers."

"You have such a lovely turn of phrase, Daniel _'slapped some meat' indeed!" Jack succeeded in leering suggestively at Daniel, who merely stuck his tounge out in reply. "Don't be childish. Anyway, hand it over."_

"Hand what over?"

"The sandwich."

"No."

"Daniel. We can do this the easy way or we can do this my way." Jack smirked as Daniel handed over a small Tupperware container. "I knew you'd see sense."

Jack opened the box and looked inside. He replaced the lid and started rummaging around in his own pack. From which he eventually produced a small first aid kit. Ignoring Daniels raised eyebrows he delved inside and extracted some surgical gloves which he snapped on theatrically. Once more he took the lid from the sandwich box and looked inside, poking the contents with a disdainful finger.

"Not much of a sandwich, is it?"

"It's just a sandwich, Jack. Neither here nor there. What are you doing?"

Jack held aloft a piece of bread by it's corner, turning it slowly between forefinger and thumb he scrutinised it from all possible angles. He shook his head, and then in a sudden movement flung it as far away as possible. It spun in the air like a skimmed stone, or a frisbee, as it flew over scrubby bushes and rocks, eventually coming to land in a small stream.

"The fish will enjoy that, and the peanut butter will make them nice and fat."

"Hrmph!"

Next Jack peeled off a rather limp lettuce leaf and, without inspecting it, tossed it over his shoulder. It landed with a small slap on the rock behind him. Picking out the cucumber slices placed two on his eyelids and ate the others.

"Sheesh, Daniel. These are see-through." He ate the cucumber that had been on his eyes and then turned his attention to the tomatoes which were liberally sprinkled with lemon pepper and salt. "You want these? Too much lemon for me."

"Sure, why not, it's all I'm going to get to eat today by the look of it." Daniel reached over and took possession of the red slices. "Urgh. Warm tomatoes." He swallowed them anyway.

"Okay, what's next. Cheese. What sort of cheese is this?"

"Cheddar, Jack. Don't you recognise it?"

"Cheese recognition was never one of my strong points." Jack ate half, then held out the other half to Daniel, pulling it away at the last second when his friend's fingers had all but closed on the cheese slice. "Ah, ah, ah."

"What, Jack?" Daniel was getting slightly bored of this game, not to mention hungry.

"I think I'll eat it myself." Jack made a show of raising the slice of cheese to his mouth, at the last minute he tossed it over at Daniel. "Nah, you're looking a bit scrawney lately. You have it."

"Scrawny? Who, me?" Daniel flexed his biceps. "Feel those! Nothing scrawny about these!"

"Biceps schmiceps! I've seen more meat on a sparrow's kneecap." Jack plucked the last piece of sandwich, a slice of rye bread, from the container. "Ah, finally, something I can work with."

Daniel was looking at his biceps with a mixture of hurt pride and disbelief and paid no attention to Jack.

"Listen up, Daniel, you never know when you'll need to know how to do this."

"Sparrow's kneecap indeed. Look, plenty of meat there."

"You're getting a bit of a meat obsession there, Daniel." Jack slapped him lightly on the leg. "I'm serious. Watch. If you need to lubricate your weapon... what? What did I say?" Totally failing at feigning a look of outraged innocence, Jack was surprised when Daniel stopped laughing and blushed. "You know, after a lifetime in the military, training recruits and the like, you stop noticing stuff like that."

"Sorry, sir."

"I could get used to you calling me sir, Daniel, very used to that."

"Well don't." Daniel folded his arms accross his chest. "Show me then."

"What?"

"Emergency weapon lubrication 101, wasn't it?"

"I'm going to put this thing together then I'm going to shoot you, you know that Daniel. Shoot you and throw you in the stream. For the fishes to eat."

"Go on then. Lube it up." By this stage Daniel had tears streaming down his face and he was doubled up laughing.

"You may well laugh, but you'll be sorry when your weapon jams and all there is between you and a load of Jaffa is a PBJ."

"Sorry," Daniel cleaned his glasses on a clean tissue, then scrubbed it accross his eyes. "I'm all ears."

"It's very simple, just rub the parts you want to lubricate with the bread. Buttered side."

"What about crumbs?"

"What about them?"

"Won't they cause some kind of stoppage?"

"Possibly, but not likely."

"Show me."

"What?"

"Rub the bread, buttered side, all over your own weapon. Then I'll believe you. Until then, I'll stick to the mineral oil."

"Sheesh. Disbeliever."

"I don't see you doing it though."

"What?"

"Rubbing your weapon with butter." Daniel looked up at Jack with a perfectly straight face.

"Oh okay. It's a wind up. Oh don't give me that 'butter wouldn't melt in your mouth' look." Jack wagged an admonitory finger at Daniel. "It was worth it, though, just to see you blush like a schoolgirl."

"I did not."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Did too. Give up now, Daniel. You know that in the 'being childish and petty' stakes I'm way ahead of you."

"Yep."

"You calling me childish?"

"Grow up, Jack."

"You _are calling me childish!"_

"I'm not the one who just deconstructed a sandwich just for... well, why did you do that anyway?" Daniel's expression had gone from carefree to deadly earnest in the blink of an eye. "Oh, and you can take off the gloves now."

"Oh, yeah." Jack peeled off the gloves and shoved them back in the first aid kit. "Don't worry, Daniel, I've got loads of them in there. I'm just taking my garbage home with me."

"So?"

"So what?"

"What was that all about?"

"I was trying to make you laugh."

"It was supposed to be a lesson in how to strip down and put back together my gun."

"Weapon," corrected Jack automatically.

"Whatever."

"Believe me, if you had to schlepp a gun around you'd know about it. They're those big jobbies with wheels."

"Oh." Daniel looked thoughtful. "So about my weapon stripping lesson?"

"Daniel, as in much of life, putting your weapon together is about patience and not forcing things. Watch." Jack took up the parts of Daniel's weapon, which had been placed on a square of dry oilskin for the lesson. Careful to explain the parts and what they did without patronising, Jack wiped each of them with small piece of soft cloth and assembled the handgun. He then took it apart rapidly, put it back on the oilskin and looked expectantly at his pupil. "Your turn."

Daniel looked over each piece carefully, remembering the description for each and it's function as part of the whole. Carefully checking for stray bits of dirt or sand he put it back together, slower than Jack but this time not at all clumsy. When he had finished he looked over at Jack.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

Jack was sitting against a boulder, with his shirt, boots and socks off, munching at a sandwich. "What?"

"You're not even watching."

"Did you do it wrong?"

"No."

"Well then." Jack daintily pushed the last piece of sandwich into his mouth and chewed carefully.

"Well then what?

"After I've had my sandwich we can fire it. Then we'll know if you've learned anything today. But right now I'm starving." Jack bit into another sandwich, leaning back against the sun warmed boulder, facing into the sun. When he was halfway through that sandwich, he absently reached into his pack and pulled out a Tupperware box, twice the size of Daniel's. "Here, I brought spares." He threw the box carefully over to Daniel.

"What's on them?"

"Salad for you."

"Salad? What sort of..." Daniels question wilted under Jack's glare. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Daniel took up a place near Jack, but in the shade of a nearby tree, leaning against the boulder to eat the sandwich. He knew it would annoy the other man, but he had to know, so he carefully pulled off one slice of bread. Before he could begin to ruffle through the contents, Jack, who still had his eyes closed against the sun, spoke.

"It's exactly how you make them. First bread, then peanut butter, then a smear of mayo, followed by cheese, tomato, salt and lemon pepper, then cucumber, lettuce and finally bread which also has mayo on it. The mayo, by the way, is home made with a mixture of olive and walnut oil." He held up his finger, "let me finish... the eggs are free range. All other ingredients are organic. Except for the peanut butter. Which is, incidentally, crunchy."

Jack was smirking, but Daniel couldn't fault his sandwich building.

"Daniel, it sometimes does pay to have someone who is trained in observation, to the minutest detail, for a friend."

"That's not a word."

"Is that the best you can do?" Jack opened his eyes and reached into his pack again. "Want some coffee?"

"We have coffee?"

"No. I have coffee. You, I believe, have a bottle of warm water."

"Oh." Daniel's face fell.

"So, you want coffee?"

"Yes please." Daniel chewed his sandwich, deep in thought. "Um, Jack?"

"Daniel."

"Did you mean that?"

"I'm not so mean that I would sit here, wafting the finest Java smells under your nose, without giving you some."

"Not... er...Thanks." Daniel sipped at the plastic mug of coffee that Jack gave him. "This is..." He looked at Jack, "... great. Thanks."

"You sure?" Jack took a gulp. "Sheesh, Daniel. It's as weak as gnat's piss."

"Well... yeah. But it's the thought that counts, right?"

"I guess."

They munched and drank in silence for the next ten minutes, enjoying the peace and quiet.

Jack tidied away the plastic sandwich boxes and sat cross legged opposite Daniel as they drank their coffee. "So, Daniel. This is the part where you were supposed to have a blob of mayo on your chin, or at the corner of your mouth."

"So you could take a picture?"

"No. So I could. Oh wait." Jack put down his plastic mug and waited while Daniel drained his before putting it on the ground next to it, before inching a little closer. Their denim clad knees were almost touching. "Where was I? Oh yes. So, Daniel. This is the part where you were supposed to have a blob of mayo on your chin, or at the corner of your mouth. So that I could lick it off. As per usual you're not on the same page as me." Jack smiled. "Close your mouth, Daniel."

"Jack. What's going on here?"

"What do you mean?"

"First you drag me out to a day in the middle of nowhere, to teach me how to strip and reassemble a weapon that I use once in a blue moon. Then you deconstruct my sandwich. Then you ... well, what _is all that mayo licking about?" Daniel suddenly looked worried. "Where's your cap? I think you've got sunstroke."_

"Shall we have a look at your..."

Daniel suddenly exclaimed. "Wait a minute. What do you mean 'as per usual you're not on the same page as me'? What's _that all about?"_

"You and I are almost never on the same page these days. I sometimes wonder if we're attending the same mission briefings. I mean, look what happened with Lotan and the Enkarans."

Daniel looked incredulous. "_That's what this is all about? A bonding session? You're trying to get me to toe your party line?" Daniel was building up a good head of steam and Jack thought it best not to interrupt him. "Or what? I'm off the team? Out of the SGC? Is that what this is about? Me not blindly following your orders?" He came to an abrupt stop and stared at Jack as if he could dig an answer out of him telepathically._

"Jeez, Daniel. Where did all that come from?" Jack rooted around in the pack and brought out another flask of coffee. Silently filling the two mugs he gave one to Daniel, who grunted his thanks, and waited to see what would come next. _Well, O'Neill, it worked. Hope you're happy now._

Daniel sipped absently at the new coffee, which tasted much better than the old, pretty good in fact. His brain was working overtime but so far it was still buzzing with angry reaction to Jack's comment. _I guess he thinks what happened on Euronda was okay because it worked out in the end._

The silence was now becoming uncomfortable for Jack. He was tense as he waited for Daniel's next comment. Hoping against hope that he hadn't pushed too hard, hoping that he hadn't hammered the final nail in the coffin of their friendship.

"Do you really need mayo as an excuse?"

Daniel's answer caught Jack off-balance. His jaw dropped slowly and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Close your mouth Jack." Daniel sipped at his coffee, closed his eyes and leaned back against the rock. _That will keep him occupied for a while now._

Jack took this opportunity to look closely at Daniel. He'd made the mayo comment on the spur of the moment, but given time to think about it further he wondered if his subconscious reason for bringing Daniel out here hadn't been to give him the chance to... _Don't go there. You brought Daniel for a day out in the country to rebuild your relationship. That's all. Period. There will be no kissing. He's a guy for cryin' out loud!_

Daniel was nothing if not patient. The sun was warm on his front, the rock was warm on his back, and inside he was warm from the coffee. He was enjoying a quiet moment, feeling warm and safe_. Safe? Where did that come from? Safe from what exactly? Perhaps he'd have to think about his relationship with Jack in a different way. Daniel wondered briefly if Jack had meant it about the mayo, if he'd been brought out here to be seduced O'Neill style. __Nah! That's stupid. More likely, he's brought me out here to find out if I'm a faggot so he can feed me to the fishes._

Patience was something that Jack had learned from fishing. He looked over at today's fish and wondered if he really wanted to catch it after all. Daniel was wearing a plaid shirt, open, over a navy t-shirt. His jeans were as ancient as the artifiacts he loved so much, white at the knees and soft from years of wear. Daniel was wearing his glasses, nothing unusual there, with the shades attached, also nothing Jack had never seen before. Through the dark glass he could just make out the curve of Daniel's closed eyelids and was glad of this chance to inspect his friend so minutely. He wondered where the lines on his friend's face had come from and, more importantly, why he hadn't really noticed them up to now. There were no grey hairs in the new, shorter, more military haircut that Daniel had adopted lately, but it was only a matter of time thought Jack. The thought made him feel oddly sad, as though he was watching Daniel's youth run away from them both.

Suddenly Jack realised that Daniel's eyes were no longer closed. He blushed both from the scrutiny he was now under and at being caught looking so intently at Daniel. Fervently hoping that it hadn't been noticed Jack dropped his gaze and fiddled with the hem of his jeans.

"I'll take your silence as a yes then?"

"What?"

"That you do need mayo as an excuse to..."

"Um. No... it's... er... I just... does that mean that you wouldn't..."

"... be averse to you licking mayo off my chin." Daniel blushed but didn't look away. "That is, if you're not winding me up." He swallowed. Now or never. Colonel's plaything or fish food. Daniel thought that at this stage it could go either way.

"Perhaps we'd better head back." Daniel looked confused and Jack rushed to explain. "I mean, it would be better if we could talk about this back home. Where we're comfortable."

"My place?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of my place."

"I'd feel more comfortable at mine."

"Me too... at mine, I mean."

"Here's good." Daniel moved his arm in a wide sweep, it's beautiful and relaxing, warm, we have food... we do have food, right?" Daniel pushed his glasses up his nose in a nervous gesture.

"Yes. We have... okay, let me qualify that. I snagged some MREs. So we won't die of hunger."

"MREs? You planned to stay up here for a while?"

"Daniel... we really do have to talk. But first I gotta take a leak, then we can put up the tent. Then we can brew some more coffee. Then we can talk. Okay?"

"Tent? Brew coffee?" Daniel blinked rapidly. The sudden realisation that Jack had planned for this eventuality sank in. "Do you mean... you _did plan to stay up here?"_

"I'm taking a leak. Why don't you go down to the stream, and fill those flasks. Then while I put the tent up you can get a brew on." Jack stood up and walked a little way off into the scrub.

Shocked into silence Daniel did as he was bidden, automatically following the simple orders. When he got back with the water Jack had the tent just about finished. He pointed at his pack, which was stowed neatly next to Daniel's by the bolder where they had been sitting. Surprised at it's weight Daniel opened it up, rummaged around and eventually pulled out a set of pans, which he knew stacked together around a small gas stove.

He looked around and, as expected, saw the arrangement of flat stones that Jack had obviously prepared as a cooking area. Once the water was on it's way to a boil, Daniel stacked the MRE's next to the stones, together with the flasks of water, some fruit in a plastic bag and another Tupperware container of coffee, salt, sugar and powdered milk.

Meanwhile Jack had thrown the packs into the tent and spread out a plaid blanket where they had been sitting previously. At Daniel's raised eyebrows, Jack just laughed.

"You may think I'm an old soldier, used to roughing it and you'd be right. But this is downtime. I like to have my backside on something a bit softer than rocks and bits of twig."

Daniel said nothing, merely busied himself making coffee the old fashioned way, using a flask instead of a coffee pot and improvising with a tissue instead of a filter. Jack watched him for a short while, sitting cross legged on th blanket. Now he had removed his boots and socks, having tied the boots together and hung them from one of the nearby bushes. He watched as Daniel, in Jack's opinion, faffed about making the coffee as good as possible, given the circumstances. Not fooled for a second, he knew that Daniel didn't care how the drink tasted, he just needed something to do while he thought about what he was going to say when he finally went over to sit by Jack.

That moment finally arrived and Daniel handed over the mug, extracted the flask from where he had tucked it under his arm and put it and his coffee in the middle of the blanket.

"Good idea. If you can stand the smell I'll take my boots off too."

"You can get rid of that godawful shirt while you're at it." Jack laughed at Daniel's shocked look. "It clashes with the blanket."

Silently Daniel removed his footwear, hanging it near Jack's, with the socks stuffed into them for good measure. One time he'd discovered some kind of spider in one of his boots which he'd placed carefully, and conveniently, next to his sleeping bag. Jack had growled something at the time about it being a good job he hadn't needed to get them on in a hurry, and since then he had always either kept his boots on or suspended them somewhere. Throwing Jack his best dark look Daniel pointedly removed his shirt tying it around his waist with a defiant look. Finally he settled himself on the blanket, once more opposite Jack, but as far away as the blanket would allow.

"Daniel."

"Jack."

"We need to talk about... stuff. You know that, don't you?"

"I guess. If you say so."

"Here we go again. Daniel, we have to talk. The way we are now, it's not good for the team."

"If you say so. The team seems to be working perfectly well without us needing to talk."

"No it isn't." Jack sighed. He had known Daniel wouldn't want to do this, wouldn't make it easy, but still. It was going to be hard work. "You tried to make me kill you."

"I didn't want you to kill me." Not meeting Jack's eyes Daniel continued. "I wanted to see if we could save the Gadmeer and the Enkarans. That's all. I was giving them options."

"So was I."

"No. You were giving them _an option. Which involved the extinction of a whole race."_

"And what if it hadn't worked? Do you value yourself so low that you think it wouldn't make a difference if you weren't here? SG-1 needs you Daniel. Earth needs you." _Dammit. **I need you.**_

"So what? I'm not sure I want to be part of a set up that makes arbritrary decisions about which races get to live and which don't. Which ones that get the Jack O'Neill seal of approval after no investigation whatsoever."

"It had to come back to Euronda. I should have guessed." He had guessed, just hadn't thought they would come to it so soon. "Look, I apologised about that. We were rash and stupid. And wrong. I admited it. We were wrong. Daniel, look at me dammit, I was wrong. Me. Colonel Jack O'Neill of the United States Air Force made a mistake. It happens, we corrected it. Now we move on."

"I'm not sure I can. It's going to happen again. And again. I'm not sure I'm up to it." Daniel finally looked at Jack's face. "We never know who we're going to run into out there. Or what. And so what if one of us has to die... it's in a good cause?" The words started to pour out faster, and Jack knew that they were getting to the whole point of his hiking trip. "Anyway, it's not as if you haven't ever ordered me to kill you? Would you like me to explain to you just how difficult it is to give the order to kill your best friend? Watching him being attacked by those metal bugs? And all the time, knowing that whatever I say, whatever I do it won't make the smallest difference to how you do things. I've learned a lot from you over the years we've been doing this, and I'm sure you've learned from me. The difference is that you just refuse to adapt the way you think. You just carry on doing your thing, and you wonder why I don't blindly follow your orders? You always wanted me to question things before, always appreciated getting a different angle on situations. But now... I don't know what happened Jack. Since that whole rogue teams thing you've seemed to want different things."

"Daniel. Breathe. Drink."

"Don't patronise me, Jack."

"That would be difficult. You're smarter than me for starters."

"Stop it." Daniel dropped his gaze again and peered into his mug, seemingly surprised that there was still something in it. He took a long drink before speaking again. "You admired their gung-ho attitude, didn't you?"

"I'll admit that I sometimes think the 'softly, softly catchee monkey' approach that we adopt isn't the right one. And, don't forget, when we went to Euronda it wasn't that long ago that me and Teal'c were getting eaten by those mental metal legos. I was jumpy, I admit it. Okay? But... I do appreaciate you Daniel. I value your input. Really."

The anger had gone out of Daniel. It had been replaced by a kind of wistful sadness. "I'm sorry. I don't know where all that came from."

"Daniel. That's what we're here for. To talk. To fix it."

"I hadn't realised just how broke it was. It was a lot easier when we just had the Goa'uld to fight with."

"You can say that again."

"Those things I said..."

"Don't sweat it. I think you needed to say them." Jack grinned. "Daniel, I'm not stupid. I can see it in you're eyes, you're busting to call me a 'goddam sonofabitch' or something... maybe you should one time. It would stop you spending too much time thinking about stuff."

"Stuff? It's hardly just 'stuff' is it? It's..."

"Yes?"

"It's... it's mostly about us. Isn't it?"

"Yep. I reckon." Jack shuffled a bit closer. "So, is it worth fixing? That's the $64,000 question."

Again Daniel blushed and Jack had the sinking feeling that things weren't going as swimmingly as they seemed. He shuffled away again, and was surprised when Daniel followed him, closing the gap until their knees brushed against each other.

The sun had moved across the sky while they had been talking. The conversation had come in fits and starts, with many long pauses and neither of the men had been paying any attention to the passage of time. A small, solitary cloud that had been wending it's way slowly across the sky for most of the afternoon finally caught up in it's persuit of the sun, blocking it's rays from the small patch of earth where Jack and Daniel were sitting. At the same time an almost imperceptible puff of air blew across Jack's back, making him shiver.

"Here," Daniel untied his shirt, "take this."

"I've got stuff in my pack." Jack flapped his arm in the direction of their tent.

"Yeah, I know. But if you get up and go over there, the next thing will be 'it's time for some food' and..." yet again the blush.

"And..."

"And then we wouldn't be..." Daniel pushed even closer, forcing Jack's knees painfully apart with his own, "... able to do this." And in a move that astonished both of them he leaned forward and kissed Jack. He even managed to cover most of Jack's lips with his own, but it was an awkward, lips crushing into teeth attempt and it was over almost as soon as it started.

Daniel pulled away, but Jack was faster, reaching out and grabbing Daniel's shoulders to prevent his retreat. Daniel winced, jerking his body and Jack instantly let go of him.

"Daniel! Don't. Stay there." Jack pushed one arm into the shirt, lightly holding on to one of Daniel's knees as he did so. He changed hands and pulled the shirt together, soon abandoning his attempt to button it single handed. Relieved that Daniel hadn't budged an inch, Jack twisted so he was sitting sideways on to him, and pulled and pushed until Daniel was doing the same. Then he stretched one arm across Daniel's back and slowly and carefully pulled him, leaning backwards at the same time, so that by the time Daniel was being held close to Jack they were lying on the blanket.

Another of the silences that had punctuated the afternoon descended upoon them.

Minutes passed and eventually the pins and needles in Jack's arm threatened to turn into fully blown numbness and he knew he would have to move.

"Daniel, last time I did this the girl weighed about half of what you do. I'm going to have to move, okay?"

"Sorry."

They wiggled around a little until they were lying side by side, not quite touching. Jack tucked one hand behind his head and waited for Daniel to speak.

Daniel waited for Jack to say something, he was surprised that he hadn't met with a fist in his face_. Must have meant it about the mayo then, he thought with a sudden smile. He inched towards Jack, until they were touching from the shoulder downwards. The warmth that comes off another living, breathing body had always surprised him and, because of the warmth of the day, Jack was positively radiating heat. Fumbling around a little Daniel twined his fingers into Jack's, stared resolutely up at the sky and said nothing._

The small cloud had long gone and the sun was only just hovering over the horizon before Daniel thought of something to say. Up until then his thoughts had been taken up only with the fact that he was in the middle of nowhere, lying on a blanket, holding hands with Jack.

That was a strange thought. Daniel examined it some more. In the middle of nowhere: _nothing unusual there. Lying on a blanket__: not beyond the bounds of possibility. Holding hands with Jack: __never in a million years!_

Turning his head sideways, Daniel looked over at the face of the man who's hand he was holding. In profile Jack looked very patrician with his long straight nose, smooth forehead and grey hair. Bearing in mind that he had, however clumsily, laid all his cards on the table by kissing this man, looking at Jack's face didn't cause any huge stirrings in Daniel. He pondered this. The idea, the thought, however, of kissing Jack definitely caused something. But he wasn't sure what it was. Not the usual stirrings that he got at the idea of kissing, say, Sha're, that was for sure. Daniel's heart thumped painfully in his chest, and it dawned on him in a flash that what he was feeling was one hundred percent love. The sappy, hearts and flowers, fluffy Valentine card sort of love. The real McCoy.

Daniel blushed and closed his eyes. How was he ever going to explain that to Jack?

In the meantime, Jack had been lying in the late afternoon sunshine, waiting for the time of day that he loved the most when he was camping. The moment when the sun finally dipped below the horizon, but the light seemed to be caught unawares and continued to light the landscape for a few more seconds in that curious, otherworldly reddish glow. He felt the movement of Daniel's head, but wasn't quite ready to meet the questions that he knew he would see writ large in his blue eyes.

Jack explored his feelings. The off-the-cuff remark about mayo and licking Daniel earlier on had been made to lighten the mood. His relationship with Daniel had recently hit an all time low, even lower than the time before they had taken that first small step into the event horizon and opened that huge can of worms. Smiling to himself as he thought what Daniel would say to him mixing metaphors and such like. The smile faded as he questioned himself on his part in the cooling of their friendship, as he grilled himself about why he hadn't tried harder to stop it. Thinking about Daniel's reaction today made him smile again, how he'd been attentive in the weapon lesson, how he had examined what he was about to eat and been genuinely surprised and touched that Jack had paid enough attention to how fussy he was about what went where in a Daniel sandwich.

Thinking about that Daniel, a Daniel who was happy about a small everyday thing, made Jack happy. If he were honest with himself it made him more than happy, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Deciding to let it lie, and enjoy the moment Jack suddenly realised that he was holding hands with another man. Expecting to feel completely squicked out by that, he was surprised to find that the fact that it was Daniel's hand gave him something that, had he been so inclined, he would call the warm fuzzies.

As it was, he assumed that Daniel twining his fingers round his own had been a reflex action and decided just to go with the flow.

Finally the sun dipped below the horison and the landscape took on an eerie red glow, like old films of how Mars would look when it had been settled by man. Jack shivered. The still unbuttoned shirt had fallen open as he lay down and he hadn't bothered to pull it closed. The sudden chill as the sun vanished made him realise that the only completely warm part of him was the strip of skin that was in close proximity to Daniel. Who dragged Jack away from the what could be termed 'warm fuzzy thoughts of Daniel' by suddenly breaking the silence.

"My feet are freezing."

"That's it? That's _it? Three quarters of an hour of silence and all you can come up with is the fact that you have cold feet?"_

"Aren't yours?"

"Well," Jack wiggled his toes, "now I come to think of it. Yes they are."

"Wait here. I'll get the boots."

"Can you grab my sweatshirt while you're over there?"

"Sure." Daniel made no move.

"Any time before I have to go through that whole 'freezing to death thing again' would be good."

"You're not going to freeze to death. It's the middle of summer."

"You should know how cold it gets in the desert at night."

Daniel shivered. "Yep. I think I'll grab my sleeping bag while I'm at it."

"That's a little forward, isn't it?"

"I didn't mention sharing it."

"Oh." Jack hammed up disappointment.

"Unless you want to?"

"Not really. I'm just getting used to us being… well… friends again. Let's not run before we can walk."

"Right." Daniel retrieved their boots and socks, delved around in the tent and emerged after a few minutes with two sleeping bags and two sweatshirts.

"You know, it would be warmer if we laid on one of these and pulled the other over us."

"Yep." Jack pulled on his socks.

"So, do you want to."

"Do you?" Jack stopped, mid sock and looked over at his companion. "I mean, I don't know where all this is coming from. I mean, I guess I didn't suddenly wake up… you know…"

"What? Gay?"

"Yeah. That. Gay. I mean, I don't think I'm gay. What about you?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm not. But…"

"… it would be pretty nice to have someone to cuddle up to in the night."

"You're a cuddler?" Daniel laughed. "I never had you down for a cuddler."

"There's a lot you don't know about me." Jack finished putting on his socks. "Don't just stand there, get your socks on. If your feet start to poke out in the night you'll be grumbling about it all day tomorrow." Jack spread out his sleeping bag, then started to unfasten Daniel's.

Wary of the silence he stopped and looked over at Daniel. He could only see his outline in the moonlight. "While you're still on your feet, why not get the lamp out. It's in the pack."

Silently Daniel brought out the light and set it down without switching it on. He equally silently pulled on his socks, and pushed his head and arms into a sweatshirt. Looking over at Jack he could see the older man fumbling in the moonlight with the buttons of the shirt.

"You want some help with that?"

"Nah, I've got it," Jack finished buttoning and pulled on the sweatshirt Daniel had thrown at him. He patted the sleeping bag. "Come on then, let's look at the stars and see if we can see any planets that we've visited."

Hesitantly Daniel sat down and shuffled over until he was close to, but not touching Jack. They spread the second sleeping bag over their feet and sat in the darkness, looking up at the night sky.

"Jack?"

"Daniel?"

"Can we lie down."

"Sure," Jack suited the action to the words.

Daniel lay next to him and after half an hour they were back where they had been before. Touching from shoulder to toe, fingers twisted together, staring up at the sky. This time, instead of a nearly unbroken expanse of deep blue, there was a black, velvet blanket, dotted with sparkling stars above them. Lost in their own thoughts they were content to lie there, with a minimal amount of contact, giving and drawing warmth from each other.

"Daniel?"

"Jack?"

"Are we going to be okay?"

"I think we might make it."

Daniel turned onto his stomach, resting his head on the heel of one hand. With the other he reached out and traced Jack's profile, stopping when the pad of his index finger reached Jack's lips. He let it rest there for a moment then withdrew it and placed it against his own. Finally making up his mind he leaned forwards and kissed Jack very gently on the lips, before pulling himself closer and cuddling in to his side. With one arm across Jack's waist, he rested his head on his friend's shoulder and enjoyed their moment of peace.

"Jack?"

"Daniel?"

"Goodnight."

"'night Daniel."

~the end~


End file.
